Labor Bureau

a branch of the United States Department of Labor and Commerce. It was organized in 1885. It is in charge of a commissioner and a staff of official clerks. The national bureau has been so successful that the leading countries of the world have established similar departments. The bureau is charged with an investigation of the conditions and needs of wage earners. Bulletins of useful information are published. Recommendations are made to Congress, and similar bureaus maintained by the several states are enabled through it to work in harmony toward the same end. Food, clothing, hours of work, wages, employment, sanitary conditions of houses and workshops, competition of convict labor, industrial education, labor legislation, and prevention of child labor are among the subjects of investigation.

Annual reports, special reports, and bimonthly bulletins of educational value are issued. In 1905, for instance, a bulletin was sent out giving the results of an investigation into the present standard of living among working people in American cities. The investigation covered 13,000 persons. It was found that the average family consisted of 5.31 persons, counting children, of course. The average income for the year was $827.19. Of this amount the sum expended for food was $326.90-about 17 cents a day per person. The following detailed statement is of interest not only in itself, but also as showing the kind of work now carried on by the bureau:

FOOD OF THE AVERAGE AMERICAN WORKING FAMILY PER YEAR.